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Turkmenistan offers to host U.N. backed meetings on disarmament

In an effort to gain an expanded U.N. role in the international community, Turkmenistan made a proposal on Monday to host five international meetings in 2014, including one on disarmament.

Turkmenistan's Deputy Prime Minister Rashid Meredov made the statement during the second week of the U.N. General Assembly's General Debate. He said his country stands for expanding the role of the U.N. in the world, citing cooperation with the U.N. as his country's top foreign policy priority.

"It is precisely the United Nations that is the main and universal international organization which adopts decisions concerning the most important issues of global development and comprehensive peace and security," Meredov said. "Therefore Turkmenistan stands for the strengthening and expanding the role of the United Nations in the world."

Meredov proposed energizing the discussion of disarmament by holding a high-level international meeting in Turkmenistan.

"We are prepared to create all necessary conditions and provide appropriate infrastructure for holding this meeting in the capital of our country (Ashgabat)," Meredov said.

On the margins of the general debate, ministers of landlocked developing countries met to review progress on the Almaty Programme of Action, a framework adopted in 2003 to set out measures for improved market access and trade facilitation to compensate LLDCs like Turkmenistan for geographical handicaps.